Head-Fi.org › Forums › Misc.-Category Forums › Music › Which "The Who" greastest Hits to get.
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Which "The Who" greastest Hits to get. - Page 2

post #16 of 22
11/23/05 at 8:07pm
Whatever you do, just don't get that recent Then And Now comp which doesn't have The Seeker for some reason. That song is amazing.

I've sort of been jonesin' for a Who comp myself. I have Who's Next and not too much desire to get any more of their full-lengths, so I was thinking Meaty Beaty would be the way to go. Honestly, I'd rather get less songs for the same price if it means I can play the disc through head to tail without encountering anything that's less than excellent. I guess I'd sort of miss Eminence Front, but then again I bet Meaty Beaty is less affected by copious amounts of tasteless limiting, as I'm guessing the Ultimate Collection is.

A quick iTunes sampling of Won't Get Fooled Again from the Ultimate Collection reveals that while it doesn't sound bad per se, it is indeed more fatiguing and less dynamic than the '96 issue. Ah, 1996... the good ol' days when mastering engineers didn't deserve to be shot.
Reply
post #17 of 22
11/23/05 at 8:21pm
There are no duff tracks on a Who 2CD set. Even at 2CDs you are still missing an insane amount of great material.

There are few good-sounding Who CDs. There is an old Steve Hoffman mastered Who's Next which I have and is very nice. But all of the '96 remasters are re-mixed and although the reliable Bob Ludwig mastered many of them, you still aren't getting them in the original form. Anything from the Who since that time is the re-mixed version, and that includes the Ultimate Collection 2CD, which I agree is merely adequate sonically, it's kind of bright and a too loud and compressed on some tracks.

But sadly, choices are limited at this point, and no mediocre mastering could possibly kill this music.
Reply
post #18 of 22
11/23/05 at 8:53pm
I agree with markl that it is sadly difficult to find quality sounding Who material. I have pretty much all of their albums on vinyl but getting good digital should be much easier than it is. The one shining exception available right now is the Tommy remix for 5.1 that Pete Townsend did himself. I have the dvd-a version and think it is amazing but the cd layer on the hybrid sacd is supposed to sound nearly as good in stereo as the hi-rez versions and better than the Mobile Fidelity gold cd version. What I am really excited about is that Pete is also remixing Quadropenia for 5.1. Nostalgic or not I am way excited for that one to come out.
Reply
post #19 of 22
11/23/05 at 9:02pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by markl
Anything from the Who since that time is the re-mixed version, and that includes the Ultimate Collection 2CD, which I agree is merely adequate sonically, it's kind of bright and a too loud and compressed on some tracks.
Actually I think the Ultimate Collection is almost all from the original mixes, isn't it? Terrible mastering job and bad sound quality, but original

Some of those 95 remixes aren't bad if you are CD only, and I think Quadrophenia is generally thought to be a good mastrering job as well, but I never got a copy. In any case, I can't see any rock fan not loving Quadrophenia, beginning to end. A true classic and my favorite Who album, but my fix usually comes via the 2-LP UK Track which sounds fantastic. Might have to do some more research since I wouldn't mind at all having a good sounding Quadrophenia CD. Probably have to go back to the days of MFSL to get one, although some of the originals were probably done well, weren't they? I never really liked the Who's Next remaster from the mid 90s that much, except for the bonus tracks.
Reply
post #20 of 22
11/24/05 at 12:48pm
The "Maximum R&B" Box set. But do yourself a favor and get the albums. And don't forget "Live at Leeds."
Reply
post #21 of 22
11/24/05 at 7:36pm

Another vote for Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy

I too suggest Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy as a greatest hits. Even though there are other greatest hits collections, this one has the highest percentage of original mixes. It's one of the few times the CD is much better mastered than the vinyl, where some of the selections were electronically reprocessed stereo! The CD restores the vintage mono sound, due to the dilligence of Steve Hoffman.

True, it doesn't capture all the Who's best throughout their career, but not even a two disc set does that without serious omissions. I'd get the MBBB disc and then some later ones, such as Quadraphenia, Tommy, and Who's Next that sound best when heard as a programmed full discs anyway.

If you have SACD, the sound quality is amazing on some of the reissues.
Reply
post #22 of 22
11/25/05 at 12:21am
Which versions of Meaty Beaty include the Steve Hoffman master? So far I've found a Canadian MCA version which Amazon thinks was issued in 1998, a 1996 version on Universal/Polygram which Tower classifies as an import without saying where from, and a 1995 MCA version listed on Amazon with no information about where it came from.
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Music
Head-Fi.org › Forums › Misc.-Category Forums › Music › Which "The Who" greastest Hits to get.